Why Trump is so wrong on Iran

THE dangers of arrogance and ignorance are nowhere more starkly illustrated than in Donald Trump’s Oval Office, where anguished advisers seek constantly to steer a rogue president away from international disaster. And now the stakes of his stubborn stupidity have gone nuclear.

Having disparaged the Iran nuclear deal for years—without actually understanding its provisions or even the process that produced it –Trump now sounds determined to abrogate that agreement. In his dismal address to the United Nations last Tuesday, he repeated his usual sneering refrain: “The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

Blinded by his swollen egotism and hatred of all things President Obama, he seems unable to comprehend the perils such a tantrum can set loose.

Those perils begin with fresh damage to the credibility of the United States among the world’s nations, only partially restored by the Obama administration’s diplomacy after the debacle of the Iraq war. Whatever Trump and his press parrots may tell us about Iran, the facts are not on his side in attacking the nuclear deal or Tehran’s adherence to its strictures. And whatever Trump may believe about his power to twist the truth in domestic politics, facts matter in the big world.

The Rouhani government, moderate by comparison with its predecessors, has faithfully complied with the dismantling of its uranium enrichment facilities. We know that because the US State Department, led by Trump appointee Rex Tillerson, has certified Iran’s full compliance—not once but twice, as recently as two months ago. (Someone should tell the president.)

For political reasons, and perhaps to placate their obstreperous boss, administration officials like Tillerson qualify that certification. They say that Iran is in “technical compliance” with the deal, as if there is any other kind. The regime of metrics and inspections that insure the deal works is highly technical indeed. Technical compliance is all we can demand or expect. It doesn’t matter whether the Iranians smile or not.

Nor does it matter, as the White House insists, that Iran pursues other policies disliked by us and our allies. The nuclear deal was negotiated not by a United States alone, but by a coalition of major powers that included European nations, Russia and China. Their cooperation, which brought Iran to the bargaining table, was based on the exclusion of all extraneous issues from the deal. (Someone should explain that to the president, too.)

So, for the White House to abrogate the nuclear deal in the absence of any violations by Iran would also represent a betrayal of those international partners—whose cooperation on other issues is vital to our interests. The consequences are potentially catastrophic, not just in the Middle East but in other zones of conflict such as the Korean peninsula.

Consider the prospect of war with Iran, which unlike Saddam’s Iraq possesses a large, competent and heavily armed military force. Any such conflict would threaten to escalate into a broad regional conflict with millions of casualties and untold destruction to the world economy and environment.

Even if war doesn’t ensue immediately with Iran, Trump’s abandonment of the nuclear deal will only encourage other states to build nuclear arsenals—and to distrust any diplomatic effort to limit those weapons. The obvious worry is North Korea, where the world community is desperately seeking to draw Kim Jong-un into negotiations. Watching Trump, why should Kim or any other bellicose dictator engage with the United States or its partners, on any issue, if the Trump administration now punishes Iran for fulfilling its obligations?

The lesson of Trump’s recklessness would be all too clear: The Iranian government should never have undertaken the political and military risks inherent in dealing with the United States and its partners, because the word of the US government is worthless. The stain left by Trump on our reputation will carry costs to us and our children that we cannot begin to imagine.